Known conventional harness making apparatus comprises providing a plurality of electrical wires which are continuously fed in a flat plane to be terminated to connectors, and then cut at a desired length after insulation displacing to connectors. Some harness-making apparatuses are adapted to make harnesses comprising electrical wires terminated to connectors at both ends of the electrical wires.
Firstly, as illustrated in prior art FIGS. 9A and 9B, these are harnesses made of electrical wires which are terminated to connectors at both ends. A harness 10, illustrated in FIG. 9(A), comprises identical connectors 14 at both ends of a plurality of electrical wires 12. Each of the connectors 14 is provided with electrical terminals (not shown) to which electrical wires 12 are electrically connected or terminated. On the other hand, the harness 20 as illustrated in FIG. 9(B) comprises electrical wires 22 terminated to a connector 24 at one end of the electrical wires 22, and to a plurality of connectors 26a, 26b, 26c and 26d at the other end. Each connector 24, 26a, 26b, 26c and 26d is provided with electrical terminals (not shown) to be electrically connected to the electrical wires 22. Other than the types of harnesses described hereinabove, there are so-called multi-harnesses comprising a small number of connectors having a large number of electrical terminals which are connected to one end of electrical wires and also a large number of connectors with a limited number of electrical terminals connected to the other end of the electrical wires, as illustrated in FIGS. 3 through 8 which are described hereunder.
Now, a reference is made to FIGS. 10 through 13 to describe a harness making apparatus for making the above discussed multi-harnesses.
A harness making apparatus 30 comprises, as illustrated in FIG. 10: a substrate 32; a first wire processing section 50 mounted on the substrate 32 for applying a plurality of connectors 60 (see FIG. 11) at leading ends of electrical wires 34; a second wire processing section 70 mounted on the substrate 32 for applying a plurality of connectors 62 (see FIG. 11) to trailing ends of the electrical wires 34; and a wire shuttle 40 horizontally moving back and forth between the first and second wire processing sections 50, 70 while holding the leading ends of the electrical wires 34. Also provided with the harness making apparatus 30 is a template 80 removably mounted on a frame 51. The template 80 has guide grooves 82 (see FIG. 13) for guiding the plurality of electrical wires 34 traveling in parallel with one another in a common plane, and a wire feeder (not shown) for selectively feeding the plurality of electrical wires 34 to the first and second wire processing sections 50, 70. It is to be noted that the harness making apparatus 30 is provided with a connector accommodation box 36 to accommodate a large number of connectors to be fed to the first and second wire processing sections 50, 70.
Illustrated in FIG. 11 is a magnified partial side view of the harness making apparatus as illustrated in FIG. 10. FIG. 12 is a magnified partial cross-section view to demonstrate the operation of the template.
As illustrated in FIG. 11, provided with the wire shuttle 40 are a wire clamp 41, to hold the electrical wires 34 (see FIG. 10) to be fed thereto, two shafts 42 slidably supported at both ends of the wire clamp 41, and a header 43 mounted at the front ends of the shafts 42 for holding the leading ends of the traveling electrical wires 34 (see FIG. 10). Since the leading ends of the traveling electrical wires 34 are clamped by the header 43 (see FIG. 10), as the wire shuttle 40 moves toward the first wire processing section 50, the header 43 is guided by a header guide plate 81 mounted on the template 80 as illustrated in FIG. 12, thereby abutting the front face of the header 43 against the rear face of the template 80 for ejecting the electrical wires 34 into the template 80 from the front face of the header 43.
A plurality of guide grooves 82 are formed in the template 80 for guiding the electrical wires 34 to be ejected or exiting from the front face of the header 43 as illustrated in FIG. 13, thereby properly guiding the electrical wires 34 to the plurality of electrical terminals (not shown) in the connector 60 through the guide grooves 82 which are equal in pitch with the electrical terminals. Also provided on the bottom face of the template 80 is a bottom plate 83 which is slidable with respect to the bottom face as illustrated in FIG. 12, thereby properly positioning the electrical wires 34 to the guide grooves 82 over the connector 60 without hanging down as illustrated in FIG. 12. When the electrical wires 34 are guided over the connector 60, the bottom plate 83 slides laterally to the right on the sheet. The leading ends of the electrical wires 34 are transferred onto the electrical terminals (not shown) in the connector 60. Immediately thereafter, a stuffer blade 52 goes down to push the electrical wires 34 into the electrical terminals (not shown) in the connector 60 for insulation displacing the electrical wires to the connector 60. In this manner, the leading ends of a plurality of electrical wires 34 are guided by the template 80 in the pitch of the electrical terminals in the connector 60 for properly insulation displacing the electrical wires 34. It is to be noted that the trailing ends of the electrical wires 34 are also insulation displaced to another connector 62 by pushing down a wire guide arm 71 and a stuffer blade 72 at the second wire processing section 70 as illustrated in FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,551,893.
The harness making apparatus 30 is a type to guide the electrical wires at the first wire processing section 50 by mounting the template 80 at the first wire processing section 50. It is also possible to apply the template 80 to the second wire processing section 70 for guiding the electrical wires therein.
Examples of multi-harnesses made by the above harness making apparatus 30 are illustrated in FIGS. 3 through 8. There are 600 or more variations depending on the number of electrical terminals of a plurality of connectors, pitches of electrical terminals, and combinations of connectors to which parts of electrical wires 34 are terminated at the first wire processing section 50. The conventional harness making apparatus for making such various forms of multi-harnesses are using unitary templates for guiding a plurality of electrical wires 34 at the first wire processing section 50. That is, each of them is made of a unitary block having guide grooves of predetermined number and configuration as illustrated in FIG. 13. Accordingly, this means that 600 or more kinds of templates may be needed depending on particular multi-harnesses to be made. The templates which are not for the harnesses under production must be stocked.
It is difficult to stock or maintain 600 or more templates and also to timely supply a particular template that a customer needs.
In consideration of the above situation, it is an object of the present invention to provide a template which requires minimum number of parts to be stocked, is capable of easily preparing to meet customers needs, and is also capable of assembling in a field or the place where the multi-harnesses are to be made.